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The Association |
Hansruedi Vonlanthen
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The Association |
Hansruedi Vonlanthen
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120,000 horses – and no forage production suitable for horses
Hay for dairy cows – the horse as an afterthought
Hay is the most important feed for horses. In Switzerland, however, it is produced predominantly for dairy cows. You have to read this sentence twice to grasp its implications.
There are around 120,000 horses in Switzerland. The market for roughage suitable for horses is therefore considerable – yet good-quality horse hay is rarely produced in this country and is imported on a large scale. Imported roughage often has defects that are harmful to health. The horses bear the consequences: respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases, metabolic disorders, allergies. And the owners bear the consequences: veterinary costs, liability risks, uncertainty in the stable.
This picture is a familiar one to us. It is the same pattern we have seen for years: within Switzerland’s agricultural structures, the horse is not regarded as a factor in its own right. It is present – but as an afterthought.
In forage production, this means that hay is produced for the dairy industry, whilst the horse gets whatever is left over.
In animal breeding, this means that the regulations recognise categories developed for other species – and anyone who does not fit into them simply does not exist in the eyes of the authorities.
Haflinger-Pentagon Sàrl-GmbH is experiencing exactly this. The Animal Breeding Ordinance does not provide for an umbrella organisation for a breed with three original stud books. The Federal Office for Agriculture does not conclude from this that the Ordinance contains a loophole – but rather that such an umbrella organisation cannot possibly exist.
The forage market shows how to respond to this: not by waiting, but by setting one’s own quality standards. No authority demanded them. They arose because they were needed.
This is precisely how we view our own work. Haflinger-Pentagon Sàrl-GmbH runs a breed breeding programme, issues the Universal Haflinger Life Number (UHLN) and issues Certificates of Origin by section – because the Haflinger breed needs this structure and because no one else is providing it.
Whether it’s forage production or breeding: as long as the horse is treated as a secondary matter in Switzerland, added value and quality will migrate abroad. The market is there. The demand is there. What is missing is the willingness to treat the horse as what it has long been economically: a sector in its own right.
Source: Kavallo – article by the Best of Horse Hay E-Learning Academy: www.bestofhorsehay.com